Guacamole

Ingredients:

• 2 avocado (very ripe!)
• 6 tbsp. lime juice
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 onion
• salt & pepper
• chili powder
• 1 tomato
  

Directions:

1. Peel the avocado. Place in a blender with 3 tbsp. lime juice and 1 tbsp. olive oil.
2. Chop the garlic and onion. Also place in the blender.
3. Add spices to taste. (salt, pepper, chili)
   
4. Blend!
5. Chop the tomato. Place in the blender.
6. Blend again briefly. (the tomato should remain chunky)
7. Enjoy!

Be careful with the chili. Guacamole tends to be a lot hotter if you eat it the next day. If you have the patience, leave the guacamole to sit a few hours before serving. (We never do this, because we don't)

It is best served as a dip for tortilla chips, although on the picture above it is shown on scrambled tofu.

Scrambled Tofu

Directions:

1. Go to http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=110 and do what it says. :D

The only things we did differently were that we left out the mushrooms and the nutritional yeast (where can you get this stuff?). It was yummy none the less!

Especially the tummy-rubbing part was easy, because the amount was more than enough for the two of us and we were full for the rest of the day.

As the only side dish, we made some Guacamole.

Miso Soup

Ingredients:

• 400 ml water
• 1 tsp. dashi-no-moto (powder)
  
• 1 shiitake mushroom
  
• 2 tbsp. miso paste (we used dark miso paste)
• 275 g silken tofu
• 2 scallions

Directions:

1. Drain the tofu, then cut it into small pieces.
   
2. Cut the shiitake in small pieces, place into a pot with 400 ml cold water and the dashi-no-moto and bring to a boil.
3. When the water in the pot is boiling turn down the heat. Then mix the miso paste with 6 teaspoons of the hot water in a small cup.
4. Add the miso and tofu to the pot. Turn up the heat again.
5. Cut the scallions into small rings.
6. When the soup is boiling again, add the scallions and take the pot off the heat.

As you can see on the picture, using this much tofu and scallion results in a very "full" soup. We think it would be better to use half the tofu and only one scallion.
The soup was very tasty, but we were full after eating it and didn't have much room left for the yummy sushi we wanted to eat afterwards. :(

Plantain Curry

Ingredients:

• 2 plantains
• oil
  
• 3-4 scallions
• 1 yellow (bell) pepper
  
• 1 tbls. curry paste (yellow)
• 400 ml coconut milk
• 1 tbls. sugar
• 1 tbls. vinegar
• 4 tbls. fish sauce
• 3 cm ginger
• 1 tsp. coriander green
• lemon grass

• 1 cup rice as side dish
  

Directions:

1. Peel the plantains. One way to do this is to slice into the peel lengthwise with a knife. Then the peel can be stripped off somewhat more easily. Then dice the plantain into ~1 cm thick cubes.
2. Heat the oil in a wok. Fry the plantains about 4-5 minutes.
3. Cut the scallions into small rings and the bell peppers into small pieces. Chop the ginger finely.
   
4. Add the white parts of the scallions to the wok and fry for about a minute.
5. Add the curry paste, the coconut milk, sugar, vinegar, fish sauce and ginger. Stir. Leave to simmer for 10-12 minutes.
   
6. In the meantime, you can prepare the rice.
   
7. Add the peppers and leave for another 2-3 minutes. The Curry is done when the plantain is soft, but not dissolved.
   
8. Remove from the heat.
   
9. Add the coriander green, the lemon grass and green parts of the scallions. Stir briefly and serve with rice.

Plantains are cooking banananas (like Nanny Ogg we know how to spell banana, we just don't know how to stop) and we got ours from a local Asian super market.

They taste like banana but have the consistency (and cooking properties) of a potato. The curry can also be prepared with potatoes instead of plantains. In this case, use about 4-5 potatoes.

Concerning the fish sauce: If you want to make a vegetarian version, you can replace it with soy sauce. Although fish sauce adds more flavour (and doesn't make it taste "fishy" at all).

Tomato Gorgonzola Pasta

Ingredients:

• 1 garlic clove
  
• 4-5 scallions (we only used the white parts)
  
• oil
• 250 g pasta (e.g. Penne)
• 125 ml whipping cream
• 125 ml milk
• 150 g Gorgonzola
• 2 tomatoes
• salt, pepper, oregano
• fresh basil
• a little grated Parmesan
  

Directions:

1. Chop the scallions and garlic. Heat oil in a pan to medium heat. Add the garlic and the whites of the scallions. Fry for 1-2 minutes.
2. Pour milk and whipped cream into the pan. Let it heat up while you chop the Gorgonzola coarsely. Add the Gorgonzola.
3. Bring water for the pasta to boil and cook according to the instructions on the package. For us it was 8-10 minutes.
4. To peel the tomatoes, we placed them in boiling water for a 1-2 minutes ("scalded" them). This makes the peel easy to remove (e.g. with a knife or your fingers). Chop the peeled tomatoes into small cubes and put them in the pan.
5. Turn the heat down. (The tomatoes should only get warm, not cooked mushy)
6. Add spices to taste! (salt, pepper, oregano)
   
7. Add pasta to sauce, stir.
8. Serve with freshly chopped basil and Parmesan on top.

As you can see below, the Gorgonzola sauce was quite tasty. :D